ijo Viscount Halifax

painted his face, blacked his eyes, and put on a sham nose, was
a perfect clown—* wonderful—no Englishman could have done
it.'11

They reached Cape Town on November 15th. Here they
stayed with the Suttons for some agreeable weeks, making ex-
peditions on foot and on horseback, and meeting all the not-
ables. There was a visit to J. F. X. Merritnan, whom Halifax
thought 'pleasant, well-read and intelligent, but he gave me the
impression of a man with little ballast,'12 and a lunch at Muizen-
berg with Milner, with whom Halifax discussed South African
politics; and on one eventful day Lady Halifax was 'hauled and
dragged'13 to the top of Table Mountain. Edward joined them
towards the end of the month. They had planned going on
after Christmas to Johannesburg and Rhodesia, and had origin-
ally had the idea—though it was the most ephemeral project—
of sailing from Beira to India in February, and so to Ceylon in
March.

Even the African itinerary, however, was never carried out.
They made a ten days* track across the Swartzberg Mountains,
but on their return to Cape Town found awaiting them dis-
quieting news of Emily Meynell Ingram. She had been in deli-
cate health for some years, and in October had had a serious
shock when her little Maltese poodle Valetta, to whom she was
devoted, was set upon and mauled by a greyhound in King's
Cross Station. She was very unwell at the beginning of Decem-
ber and on the ipth was so dangerously ill that her brother
Frederick cabled to Halifax. On the 2ist she died.

Halifax at once abandoned his plans and, with no heart for
sightseeing, took the next steamer home. He felt his sister's
death and his own absence more painfully than anything that
had happened since the death of his sons.

What would I not give to have been with her at the end [he
wrote to Canon Wylde]—to have been at Hoar Cross! She was